Jeremy Hunt – don’t think we didn’t notice what you left out of the Budget
Today’s autumn statement is another reminder that the Tories have no interest in building a Britain where the majority of people thrive. And they certainly don’t seem to care about young people
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Your support makes all the difference.We’re officially back in a recession. Thought to be quite truthful, I don’t really remember a time when Britain wasn’t financially in the toilet.
By the time I was actually aware of this sort of thing and not taken up with Barbies (or, later, Panic at the Disco and learning to roll cigarettes), the fiscal barometer had swung to grim – and it has stayed grim for young people ever since. The latest recession is tipped to be a long, deep one. It’s the least fun innuendo ever.
As announced in today’s autumn statement, the country is being battered with a raft of public service cuts and tax rises that will impact those least able to financially protect themselves the most. For the young ‘uns: the millennials and Gen Z-ers who don’t own their own homes, it’s not great news. And crucially, there’s no help for private tenants, who are crying out for a sensible cap on rip-off rents.
Yes, house prices are tipped to take a tumble in the face of spiralling mortgage rates and rising rental costs – but since we’re paying almost half of our monthly salaries to landlords and struggling with the inflated costs of food and essential bills, the predicted fall in house prices will not do us much good.
Higher mortgage costs further reduce any supposed “benefit” from falling house prices, anyway. It’s also worth noting that government schemes like mortgage subsidy programs and cutting stamp duty stimulate the demand for homebuying – but not the supply.
Why am I so bothered about homeownership? Maybe it’s because I look at what my mum and dad’s generation had at my age (and far younger), and I feel a little bit cheated. Maybe it’s all the ridiculous, snooty arguments blaming young people for spending money on small pleasures – lattes and Netflix and avocado toast – as if that’s why they can’t buy a home.
The fact is: house prices far, far outstrip incomes. Just look at analysis from Lloyds Bank, which shows that house prices are up 16.8 per cent since the start of pandemic, while average incomes have risen by just 2.7 per cent.
Or maybe it’s because I give a private landlord in London roughly 50 per cent of my take home pay every month.
I’ve got a roof over my head, but the money I pay for it does not go towards an asset that provides security for me (or my dependents) in the long-term – it only benefits the landlord.
This would be acceptable if it was only expected to be short-term – but it isn’t. It’s all I can expect for the future. Long-term renting should not be the only choice; the snare that traps people like myself, pricing us – ultimately – out of living somewhere we can truly call “home”; or having what our landlords have.
Rental prices are out of control – particularly in London, where the average advertised rent has hit £2,343 a month. According to the mayor of London’s office, this is more than double other parts of the country.
Today’s autumn statement is another reminder that the Tories have no interest in building a Britain where the majority of people thrive. And they certainly don’t seem to care about a shafted generation of young people.
When I was 17, the unconstrained greed of bankers crashed the economy through predatory mortgage lending and excessive risk-taking, and Northern Rock collapsed.
When I was 19, the Tories swept to power under “modernising” David Cameron, with the help of the Lib Dems. The Lib Dems immediately betrayed students by supporting the tripling of tuition fees to £9,000 per year, and the coalition government betrayed everyone but the richest 1 per cent by introducing a crippling era of austerity.
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Cameron and Osborne’s austerity was not austerity for people like them. It was not austerity for their party donors or their friends. It was hardship and suffering and misery and death for poor, vulnerable folks – those who are statistically unlikely to vote Tory anyway. And it was a choice, just like this new round of £30bn worth of public spending cuts.
Now, I’m 31 and we’ve had 12 years of Tory goverment. I’m not alone among my peers in having no assets, no savings – nothing I can use to pay for my care when I am elderly or pass on to any future children. It’s not in the Tories’ interests to help us – British politics is increasingly polarised along age lines, particularly post-Brexit – as young people are far less likely to give the Conservative Party their vote. We’ve been ignored and penalised and left to rot at every possible opportunity.
Tory Budgets only have two settings: chaos mode (wild, unfunded tax cuts for the rich, crash the pound Trussonomics) and smug, “sensible” mode (we’re cutting public services to the bone, kids are growing up malnourished and you’d better be grateful for every last Fray Bentos in the food bank). Compassionate Conservatism, touted again today by chancellor Jeremy Hunt, is an oxymoron – like “deafening silence” or “working royal”.
Nineties babies like myself have already lived through three recessions. When do these economic crises stop being called “unprecedented times” and start just being... the way things always are. And when does my generation get considered?